General Echo: Bathroom Sex (1980)

Graham Reid | Feb 4, 2014 | <1 min read

General Echo (Earl Robinson, shot by police in 1980 shortly after this song appeared) is generally credited -- if that's the right word -- with shifting Jamaican reggae away from consciousness lyricals (morally uplifting and philosophically profound sentiments ) to something rather more . . . base, shall we say?

He's the man we can thank for rude lyrics, ridiculous innuendo of the Carry On kind and some genuinely funny "slackness".

Tracks on his final album -- the charmingly suggestive, but literally true 12 Inches of Pleasure -- included Lorna She Love Young Boy Banana, It's My Desire To Set Young Crutches on Fire, Me Know Everything About She Pum Pum, Old Man Love Young Gal Vegie and the hilariously entitled She Have A Pair of Headlamp Breast.

This is all too stupid to take seriously let alone be offended by, but Echo was also a first class toaster and was much mourned. There were a number of tributes to him.

This one catches him at his best with a wobble-bottom sound and some slashing dub touches -- and it's about peeping into the bathroom . . . and it's rudely funny.

Be offended if you will.

For more one-offs, oddities or songs with an interesting backstory see From the Vaults.

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